Big surprise brewing for Pottstown's Fourth of July parade

POTTSTOWN — A new television program that focuses on craft beer will film an episode of its program on a float in the middle of Pottstown’s Fourth of July Parade Thursday, all while brewing what one organizer called “the most patriotic beer ever brewed.”

Although the work on the details of the last minute addition to the parade have been quietly underway in the past week, Fourth of July Committee Co-Chairperson Marcia Smale said enough of them had been ironed out by Friday evening that the public could be let in on the unexpected feature.

“It was quite a surprise when they came to us, but this is so great for Pottstown and I think it’s going to make this year’s parade really special,” said Smale, whose brother and committee Co-Chairperson Fire Marshal William “Chip” Smale gave location scouts a full tour of the parade route earlier in the week.

How did this all come about?

You might say that Philadelphia’s loss is Pottstown’s gain.

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Steve Stockman, who with fellow executive producers Jared Cotton and Chris Burke conceived of the new “Brew Dogs” program, said they wanted to film a patriotic episode and, where better to do that than in Philadelphia, where American independence was first declared?

“But when we talked to the folks in charge of the Philadelphia Fourth of July parade, they just didn’t want the word ‘beer’ associated with their parade,” Stockman said from Denver Friday evening, where another episode of “Brew Dogs” was being filmed.

“So we started looking around for a place near Philadelphia. My sister (Linda Stockman Vines) lives in Pottstown. I’m familiar with the town and I know they’re known for their Fourth of July Parade,” he said.

“We looked a bunch of places, but Pottstown really had the look we were looking for,” Stockman said.

But be warned people looking for a float serving beer along the parade route will be disappointed.

Stockman pointed out that the show’s hosts, Scotsmen James Watt and Martin Dickie, will be undertaking the early stage of brewing — before the alcohol is formed.

“What they’ll be doing is not much different from making oatmeal,” he said with a laugh. “They’ll be mixing water and malt and bringing it to a boil.”

But it’s no ordinary brew they’ll be concocting.

In fact, at this point, you might be asking “what makes this beer so patriotic?”

Stockman is glad you asked.

“We have digitally encoded the preamble to the Declaration of Independence onto a large number of strands of DNA in the yeast that we will be using to make the beer,” Stockman explained.

“As a result, the batch we brew will have approximately 328 million copies of the Declaration’s preamble in it — one for every man woman and child in the United States,” he concluded.

“Does that mean the more of this beer one drinks, the more patriotic they become?” an enthusiastic reporter asked.

“Exactly,” Stockman replied.

If this all sounds a little crazy, that’s the idea.

The idea of “Beer Dogs” is to take beer “to the cutting edge,” said Stockman.

Other episodes will see the “most caffeinated beer in the world, beer brewed on a moving train or a raft built out of beer kegs and even a San Francisco beer you actually drink as fog,” according to the materials for the show. “Fast moving, funny and completely insane, this show is no dull ‘beerography’ — it’s a total craft beer experience.”

When contacted by The Mercury, Stockman said he was in Denver where the show was brewing “solar-powered meat beer.”

Watt and Dickie, described as “Scottish Beer Evangelists,” are the star brewers at “Brew Dog,” an Aberdeen-based food company which Stockman described as “the fastest growing food and beverage company in the U.K. with outlets in 32 countries.”

On the show, named after their signature eatery, Watt and Dickie will travel the U.S., report on the local beer scene and brew with and highlight the country’s top craft brewers.

“That’s part of the mission of the show,” Stockman said, “to find the country’s best craft brewers and expose them to s larger audience.”

So it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the greater Pottstown area’s beer pedigree that the two hosts will be joined during the show by brewers from Pottstown’s own Sly Fox Brewery and Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown.

On parade day, after proceeding west from Keim Street with the rest of the parade, the float will stop permanently in front of The Brickhouse at High and Hanover streets, where the taping will continue.

As will all the show’s six hour-long episodes already approved, the episode featuring the Pottstown Fourth of July Parade will air on the newly created Esquire Network, named after the popular magazine.

Stockman said the first episode debuts in late September, so the episode featuring Pottstown, appropriately the fourth episode, “should be on the air sometime in October.”

In the meantime, you now have another reason to come down to Pottstown’s Fourth of July parade in a spirit of patriotism.

Just remember what Declaration of Independence signatory Benjamin Franklin once said: “Beer is proof that God loves us.”